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My wife and I celebrated the completion of the 2nd draft of my novel last week. We went out to dinner and toasted to my small victory.

Actually, calling it a small victory may not be the best choice of words, since it felt like a pretty significant victory. It was tough to stay committed to this project. I thought writing a novel would be a far easier task than it’s turned out to be; one time through, hand it to an editor, be done with it! I was wrong.

I recently realized how wrong I was when I took a short class on writing a novel. The instructor was a published author who told me she had about 15 drafts before she was able to call it good. FIFTEEN!!!

Personally, I don’t plan to create 15 drafts, but I do anticipate several more drafts on my project. At least one, maybe two or more before I’m ready to hand it over to a select few people for feedback. Once I’ve got some feedback, I plan to do a couple more drafts — including an edit from a professional editor.

Right now, I’m going to put the project away for a short while and wait for inspiration to put draft number 3 in motion. I’m not sure when that will be, but I have a tentative goal to get it done by the next Nanowrimo 2010, in November. A month in which a new book will likely find it’s beginnings.

So, to sum up how I got to this point: when I did Nanowrimo 2009, I completed most of my first draft. I wrote all through November and about two weeks into December. I then harvested the high points from the plot/characters and put them on 3×5 cards that I stuck on a bulliten-board that remains a permanent fixture in my house.

My writing board and my muse

The breakdown:

1st draft – 2.5 months (Working daily, several hours a day)
2nd draft – 4.5 months (Working weekly, on a doable minimum schedule)

The above 7 months of work has actually taken me over 9 months with all the breaks I’ve taken on the project. Completion — if it sees the light of day —will easily take more than a year. I hope it sees the light of day, but I still may decide to shelf it. I reserve the right to shelf it! And if I do, well, all will not be lost.

Writing this novel has been fun, it’s been difficult, but it’s also been a great learning experience. One which I plan to do again and again!

I think if I was a professional author, working only on my project, then 4-6 months would be a reasonable time-frame to complete a novel. Since I work full time and write novels on the side — even though I haven’t finished one yet — I’d say a year and a half to 2 years would be reasonable. But that’s just a projection.

So… if you’re writing a novel, or planning on writing a novel, hopefully my experience will shed some light on the subject. Thanks for reading and keep writing!